My beloved Roy has an expression he uses when confronting news stupid enough to induce utter dumbfoundedness: [Blink. Blink.]
So it was when I heard that Herr Trump would be “revealing” his health details via TV doc Dr. Oz. [Blink. Blink.] It’ll be broadcast Thursday. I have another long drive and a deadline.
So here’s a surfing picture:
And here’s what I’m really doing this week: Taking work calls during dinner.
Carry on, people.
Deborah said on September 14, 2016 at 3:55 pm
Nancy, you’ve got that radiant kissed by the sun look. Everyone looks like they’re having a blast.
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Scout said on September 14, 2016 at 4:17 pm
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/09/donald-trump-says-he-kisses-ivanka-every-chance-he-gets.html
[Blink. Blink.]
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LAMary said on September 14, 2016 at 4:29 pm
I liked the health report from the first doctor a lot better. It read like it had been written by a middle school kid. Not sure which is better; that someone wrote it or that Trump released it.
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Julie Robinson said on September 14, 2016 at 4:30 pm
Have been hanging out and running errands with my daughter the pastor and think she needs to go back to the old pastor days, when you left a message at the church and the pastor picked it up whenever they got in to the office. She probably gets 5 or 6 calls each hour, plus assorted text and fb messenger. Am ready to kill her cell phone, except of course she has no land line so how else would I call her. Time to talk boundaries.
Other than that I am still in a news hole with no TV or radio, though finally have internet. But mostly I’m too busy trying to get this house set up.
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2016 at 4:41 pm
Julie – as long as you saw Nance’s photos, you haven’t missed a thing; and here’s wishing you strength as you continue the (I bet delightful, in many ways!) task of helping your daughter get her home in order
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adrianne said on September 14, 2016 at 4:44 pm
Best moment today: An African-American female pastor of a Methodist church in Flint tells Trump to shut up and stop talking politics. And he does.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/flint-pastor-interrupts-trump-political-speech
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2016 at 5:02 pm
Adrianne – the best moment yesterday was surely in the president’s campaign stop in Philly; marvelous from front to back!
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adrianne said on September 14, 2016 at 5:04 pm
Agreed, Brian! It was heartening to hear Obama in his full-throated backing of Hillary.
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brian stouder said on September 14, 2016 at 5:10 pm
also – run (don’t walk) to read this article on Harry Reid.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/i-hate-palm-trees-the-sentimental-journey-of-harry-reid/2016/09/14/afcfc6bc-7301-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html?wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1
There’s definitely a movie in here (A cross between Goodfellas and Its a Wonderful Life, I’d say)
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Jolene said on September 14, 2016 at 5:17 pm
Agree re the POTUS in Philadelphia. He is obviously dying to stick it to Trump, and I hope hem does it often.
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beb said on September 14, 2016 at 5:34 pm
And the anticipated release of Trump’s medical records on Dr. Oz appears to have been 86ed.
Had not heard about the woman in Flint telling Trump to shut up. You go, girl!
And Newsweek has a long article on Trump’s business connections making it a nightmare to disentangle him from overseas patrons and thus would be a nightmare for foreign policy.
Why didn’t anyone talk about this 15 months ago?
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Julie Robinson said on September 14, 2016 at 5:46 pm
There are a lot of women pastors who are building up anger at the patriarchy. Sarah had a funeral on Sunday afternoon–two sermons in one day–and afterwards she helped clean up from the dinner. She came home and wondered how many male pastors would have done that. She was exhausted but she saw that her little old ladies were too, so she didn’t leave until all was clean.
A propspective parishioner decided not to join because her husband, who doesn’t even come to church, grew up in a tradition without women pastors, and she didn’t want to rock the boat.
This crapp happens to her everyday.
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Dexter said on September 14, 2016 at 6:05 pm
carryin’ on, as ordered….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP0VBB7BO64
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Sherri said on September 14, 2016 at 7:21 pm
On pastors and phone calls, an embarrassing confession: a few months ago, I was reading something on my phone and fell asleep with my phone in hand. About 4 am, I sleep-dialed my pastor. I was mortified, but he was very gracious about it.
Since then I’ve been careful not to use my phone for bedtime reading.
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Sherri said on September 14, 2016 at 7:29 pm
I will give Uber this: Pittsburgh is indeed a challenging environment for self-driving cars, much more challenging than where Google drives their autonomous vehicles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/technology/our-reporter-goes-for-a-spin-in-a-self-driving-uber-car.html
http://qz.com/781151/why-is-uber-rushing-to-put-self-driving-cars-on-the-road-in-pittsburgh/
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Sherri said on September 14, 2016 at 7:55 pm
I’ve got an idea: let’s give the resources the NYTimes has to the Stranger and let them cover the election for a while.
http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/09/14/24559629/hillary-clinton-is-medically-fit-to-be-president-doctor-says
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 14, 2016 at 10:31 pm
Julie, when you and your daughter figure out the boundaries thing for clergy and phone/text/email/messaging stuff, please let me know!
I will say that it’s all hands around here cleaning up, but I ran a Hobart dish machine in college and at Scout camp, so it’s a joy to get my turn to run it . . . we have a lovely kitchen and serving area with a full dish line, which I know makes us very, very blessed. But if I were building new today, I’d make the kitchen/serving area fully furnished for major meal operations, and leave out some of the worship space finery until a future fundraising campaign. First things first!
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 14, 2016 at 10:34 pm
Obviously, I’m a male pastor, but I can say I’ve lost prospects for being insufficiently many things, but did just gain a couple’s decision to join when in a conversation I said, as an aside “Vote for Trump? I can barely stand saying the name Trump” — and she turned to her husband and said “see, I told you we could join his church.”
To be clear, it’s not my church. I’m just running it for Jesus until he gets back.
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Jolene said on September 14, 2016 at 10:59 pm
Have you seen Colin Powell’s emails? I can’t say they are wrong, but, man, they are brutal. No one in Washington is ever going to put an opinion about another person in writing again.
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Julie Robinson said on September 14, 2016 at 11:24 pm
Jeff, I figured you were the exception about cleaning up. And she had a woman ask who she was voting for in her second sentence! I’d never dream of asking my pastor that.
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Crazycatlady said on September 15, 2016 at 1:30 am
BEB: Did you really think any Trump voter would have voted differently if this was out there 15 months ago? If nothing he says or does stopped voters from voting for him in the primary, what would change their minds now? Reality? As a Trump spokesgoblin said “He will win in a landslide!”, and panel laughed out loud! Who’s laughing now?
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basset said on September 15, 2016 at 6:30 am
I don’t see any Powell comments in that Post article that I’d disagree with.
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Deborah said on September 15, 2016 at 6:38 am
Yesterday I was out and about running errands, I found myself walking past the Trump tower on Wabash. Out by the curb a woman dressed in red, white and blue from head to toe was holding up a Trump sign, smiling crazily. I glanced at her and then quickly looked away. Then I noticed she was being videoed. I wondered which side the videoer was on. Was he on her side hoping to catch someone being rude or violent with her, or was he on the other side hoping to catch her say something stupid?
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alex said on September 15, 2016 at 7:19 am
The last few times I crossed the bridge on Boul Mich tourists were taking pictures of themselves with the Trump building as a backdrop and I was asked by a couple of Middle-Eastern ladies to take their picture with their phone. I guess it’s a thing.
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Jolene said on September 15, 2016 at 7:31 am
I agree, beb. The Powell comments are tough, but mostly accurate. I do hope Bill Clinton isn’t dicking bimbos, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
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alex said on September 15, 2016 at 7:44 am
Bill Clinton was dicking bimbos per the New York Post. Powell was careful to qualify the source of his joke.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 15, 2016 at 8:23 am
Powell continues to make me wish he’d run. Alma had the last word, and I respect him all the more for saying “well then, hon, that’s that.” Sure, he should have put his foot down with the yellowcake presentation at the UN, but I still think in general there’s not enough credit given to the fact that, while the weapons of mass destruction turned out not to exist, there was such a culture of terror within Saddam’s cadre that no one would admit there wasn’t any — so the intelligence was totally screwed up, because everyone in senior leadership thought the Boss had nuclear weapons, he just didn’t let their unit have any. So all the way to the last stretch to Baghdad, the communications were full of generals trying to figure out which command had them and was going to use them . . .
Anyhow, I think Powell was as baffled as anyone by the CIA’s mixed signals and Bush’s clear intent to “finish the job” and made an error — which I don’t think puts the whole Iraq war in his lap. But it’s a moot point, because he will never run for anything ever again. I do hope that Hillary will swallow hard and shake his hand and welcome him into her administration.
In east central Ohio, there’s clearly a strong vocal subcontingent of Trump voters, both in the GOP ranks and of a squad never seen in political activity before, from perhaps the alt-right, but many of them just fringies of multiple sorts: pro-pot activists, conspiracy dudes, proponents of the “Nephilim” (ask me later and I’ll wearily explain, but we have lots of them around this county), that sort of peculiar intensity. I hope I’m not falling victim to Kaelism in that I’m just not running into more than a minority of Trump voters. A few people have surprised and disappointed me, and those I talk to more than in passing are articulate not on the candidate, but on stories about their adult children/grandchildren, whose lives have hit complications and whose prospects are either grim, or have only turned up by moving long distances away. Obviously, we have lots of those sorts of potential voters in this region, but even among many who fit the profile there’s a strong revulsion at the man Trump, let alone the candidate.
What’s not helping Hillary any is the startlingly lackluster and oddly off-key campaign Strickland is running. I had direct dealings with him and Frances back when he was governor, and I couldn’t imagine voting for him for dogcatcher, much to my progresssive friends’ sorrow, but Portman has made a huge personal impression on me, and has done good work (yes, I know his offenses against liberal pieties, but he’s ticked off plenty of conservatives, too, and just warmly and intently keeps explaining his own sense of coherence and integrity, pulling a growing consensus behind himself).
It was earlier thought Portman’s seat in the Senate was in danger as he has, yes, technically endorsed Trump while bending over backwards not even to say his name while so doing, but his lack of support of Trump and the strength of anti-Trump sentiment was going to take him down as Hillary rises. Well, I can’t tell you which drop came first, exactly, but Strickland just has had the oddest petulant passive-aggressive commercials on TV — not odd if you ever worked with the guy — while Portman runs a few short “here’s what I’ve done” ads and the Super PACs keep putting up ads talking about how many jobs left, how the Rainy Day fund was drained (sure, that’s what it’s for, but his lack of any other strategy at the time other than drawing it down is well remembered), and how feeble his leadership really was. So now Portman is doing fine, and I worry that as Strickland looks even more pathetic, his campaign is dragging down Hillary’s Ohio numbers. I understand the SDCC pulling funding for Tragic Ted, but they may have missed the role those dollars could have played triangulated for the top of the ticket.
That’s my Ohio electoral update for this week. The polls are tightening here, but I think HRC still has an edge, and it can yet bend back up. But she’s gonna need to send Joe and Barry here a few more times in the next six weeks. Bill maybe in Cleveland, but he’s not all that down here; we want Biden!
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A.Riley said on September 15, 2016 at 8:36 am
Please oh please, can we retire the phrase “little old ladies” in reference to the people who serve and give and work so hard to bring about so much that’s good in the world?
Nothing personal, Julie, and strength to your daughter the pastor, but I work for a denominational women’s org and that phrase is the bane of our existence.
These are the women who keep the wheels turning, who keep the community together, who work to exhaustion against the barbarity in our midst and at our doors, whether the doors of the church or the doors of the public library or the doors of any other civilizing institution or movement. They are powerful.
And yet those of us who are not yet old dismiss and ignore and patronize this powerful force for good simply because it comes wrapped in an aging female form.
Oh yeah, I have feelings on this topic. Dammit.
Now back to our regularly scheduled kibitzing . . .
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Julie Robinson said on September 15, 2016 at 9:06 am
You are so right, and it’s absolutely true at our church too. May I claim extreme fatigue, and try again?
Sarah noticed that the women eldsters, who are the rock of her congregation, were tired out after serving for most of the day. So she stayed and helped. And wondered if a male pastor would have done the same.
Thank you for setting me straight, and please forgive me.
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Deborah said on September 15, 2016 at 9:13 am
I’m a little old lady, and proud to be one.
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nancy said on September 15, 2016 at 9:28 am
I wonder if we’re moving toward a time when leaked emails won’t automatically be news, per se. As others have pointed out, hacking someone’s email is stealing, and in the case of Powell, it’s hard to argue this is news. He said rude things about people; is this a crime, a betrayal of public trust, a theft of the public purse? No. It’s pretty much just gossip.
If I were an editor-in-chief, I’d take these on a case-by-case basis. It’s one thing if an email chain reveals serious misbehavior (as in the Flint case). It’s quite another if it’s gossip.
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alex said on September 15, 2016 at 10:00 am
Speaking of serious misbehavior in Flint.
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Deborah said on September 15, 2016 at 10:55 am
Alex, yes, and the NYT did a story on that too but it ends giving Trump the last word, doesn’t refute what Trump said happened, but there is a video. Politico also reported what Trump said happened and included what the NPR reporter said about the event. Why did the NYT not refute what Trump said? Or at least tell another side to the story?
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A.Riley said on September 15, 2016 at 11:03 am
No worries, Julie — forgiveness granted 🙂
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 11:13 am
Everybody here seems much easier on Powell than I feel. I’d point out that there’s another way of looking at Powell, that never happens because the narrative of Powerll is that he’s such a good, honest man. He was certainly weaselly about what he told Hillary concerning his use of email as SoS; he didn’t want to take responsibility for the fact that yes, he had told her all that before she made her choices.mthat email also made it clear that he was indifferent about regulations concerning SCIFs and FOIA.
I’m not willing to give him a pass on the Iran stuff either. I don’t read it as everyone was so confused about whether Iraq had WMDs. I read it as they wanted an excuse to go into Iraq from the beginning, and looked for whatever semi-plausible intelligence trail they thought they could sell. Either Powell was an idiot or he knew what was up; in neither case is he the last honorable man come to save us from ourselves and our ugly politics.
You don’t get to be Joint Chief without being able to shine your image as well as your shoes, and anytime there’s such a strong narrative press narrative around someone, I get dubious. i don’t think those emails indicate how right Powell is/was, but how willing he was to blame everybody else for what went wrong.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 11:21 am
As the hacked emails move into the political realm, there is an incentive to take the next step: alter some of the emails to make them worse. Not all of them, just a little bit, so that the target can’t deny that the emails aren’t real, but that this one has been changed, and that may be hard to argue and damaging. These aren’t pranks or vigilantes anymore; these are state actors, apparently. Russia is getting the attention now, but China is the more concerning one. Bruce Schneir is not the alarmist type, but he has a recent article about a recent set of attacks that are concerning: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/09/someone_is_lear.html
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brian stouder said on September 15, 2016 at 11:24 am
Sherri – I confess that I always (always!) give Powell a pass, since he’s a real-deal guy when it comes to military service/seeing the elephant.
He also gets a pass on the assumption that if he WASN’T in that administration, things could only have been worse, w/ Cheney & Company calling the shots.
After September 11, we were going to hit somebody; how much worse might it have been?
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alex said on September 15, 2016 at 11:32 am
Here’s how a mediocre outlet like TIME covers the Trump brouhaha in Flint.
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Joe K said on September 15, 2016 at 11:45 am
Jeff,
Not sure of your denomination and really it dosnt matter, I just was wondering what is allowed from the pulpit politics wise? are you allowed to tell the congregation how to vote? Are you allowed to tell your personal opinion on who is running?
Pilot Joe
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brian stouder said on September 15, 2016 at 11:59 am
And I forgot to say – regarding the marvelous photos –
nice gams!
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 12:01 pm
Iraq wasn’t about 9/11, Brian. And you’re assuming that Powell kept things from being worse based on what other than the perception that he’s the last honorable man? What about his actions leads you to believe that he was a force for good in that administration?
Yes, I give him credit for having served. I give John McCain credit for having served, and for what he went through as a POW. That doesn’t mean that I assume they are automatically right, good, and honorable.
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LAMary said on September 15, 2016 at 12:14 pm
I will never be a little old lady. My grandmother was 6 feet tall and when she was in her late seventies two kids tried to steal her purse. She beat them up. I take after her.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 12:18 pm
Joe, it doesn’t matter what denomination Jeff is. Churches are 501(c)3 organizations under the law, and are prohibited from endorsing or opposing candidates for office in any way. This is true of all 501(c)3 orgs. They can be involved in issue advocacy, but not in candidate advocacy, and they can be involved in nonpartisan forums or get out the vote activity.
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/the-restriction-of-political-campaign-intervention-by-section-501-c-3-tax-exempt-organizations
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brian stouder said on September 15, 2016 at 12:20 pm
Sherri – in quantum physics, there’s the concept of the ‘observer created reality’ -wherein, for example, you cannot ask “what does an atom look like?” unless you specify how you’re looking at it – as THAT will affect what you see.
In 2001, I was still, adamantly an “R” – and that not only affected my perspective, but also continues to affect my memory of those days.
Admitting that much – and even trying to compensate for it – I still greatly admire Colin Powell, and I loved his book (back in the day), too! He came to Fort Wayne and spoke, and I really enjoyed that, too.
After Ronald Reagan, he should have run for office; or certainly after Bush-one
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 12:22 pm
The media is so distracted by the wall that Trump’s proposals concerning legal immigration haven’t gotten much attention, but I’m sure his white nationalist base is happy: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/trumps-proposal-for-legal-immigration/499061/
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alex said on September 15, 2016 at 12:28 pm
I give Powell some credit. He seemed to be genuinely ill at ease having to advocate for the Iraq debacle and when he later resigned he intimated that his input wasn’t really welcomed by the administration; they just wanted him to lend his good name to their bad faith. He could have spoken out more forcefully than he did and we’d have all liked him better for it, but I can respect his decision not to burn bridges.
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Jakash said on September 15, 2016 at 12:33 pm
Somebody in that administration needed to be giving more credence to Hans Blix reporting about the inspections showing no weapons, rather than the “but Saddam’s an evil bastard who came after my daddy, regardless” argument. Seems to me it could have been Powell, and would have been if he were “all that.” Still, I’m inclined to like the guy, too — I’m certainly a sucker for a shiny image…
Brian @ 37: “After September 11, we were going to hit somebody…” We HAD hit somebody, we still were hitting somebody, and Iraq certainly distracted from the effort to get the actual guy that we most wanted to hit for 9/11. Surprised to see you say that, though not surprised about your shout-out for the gams. ; ) And I do appreciate that you had a different perspective at the time than you do now.
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Julie Robinson said on September 15, 2016 at 12:34 pm
Powell’s military service was stellar, but I think in the Bush administration he was too much the good soldier, not questioning orders from on high. For me, it marsthe record of an honorable man. Personally, anytime I haven’t questioned things I’ve been sorry later. Never has anything bad come from questioning things.
Trump tries to spin the Flint pastor: http://www.npr.org/2016/09/15/494064219/trump-criticizes-flint-pastor-but-misstates-key-facts-about-their-encounter?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160915
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Jakash said on September 15, 2016 at 12:43 pm
Nice piece about Hillary from Garrison Keillor:
“Someday, historians will get this right and look back at the steady pitter-pat of scandals that turned out to be nothing, nada, zero and ixnay and will conclude that, almost a century after women’s suffrage, almost 45 years after Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law, a woman was required to run for office wearing concrete shoes.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clintons-concrete-shoes/2016/09/14/eb033ef8-7a90-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html?utm_term=.3309fe4a32ec
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 12:43 pm
No, Powell waits until after he leaves to burn bridges. He’s often critical of things after the fact, when it can make him look better. Let’s,find a place where he had to make a stand that actually cost him something.
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LAMary said on September 15, 2016 at 2:45 pm
Trump says that he could tell the Pastor was nervous and had something planned. He also was able to read the body language of the guys giving him his security briefing and could tell they disliked Obama. No wonder he’s a billionaire. He knows what people are thinking.
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Jolene said on September 15, 2016 at 2:48 pm
Watched Trump speak at the New York Economic Club a little while ago. Even I, a person of limited expertise in business and economics, could tell he was mostly blowing smoke. Cut taxes, increase military spending, reduce burdensome regulations (no specification as to which ones), increase economic growth to levels never before witnessed. His answers to questions were vague, wandering off topic and into platitudes as he does. Response in the room seemed tepid, as far as I could tell. I’d have been embarrassed to give such a speech, but, hey, I guess we already know it’s tough to embarrass DJT.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 2:48 pm
My larger point is about media narratives. Why does everyone think Colin Powell is the last honorable man? He gets to start from that point because he’s a soldier, so he’s presumed to be honorable. Now all he has to do is not actually get caught in a sex scandal or stuck in a place where he actually has to take a stand and upset people, and he gets to stay there.
Hell, David Petraeus was caught in a sex scandal and intentionally handed classified information over to his mistress for self-serving reasons, and there are still people who wish he’d run for president. Imagine, if you can, had a female general done such a thing.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 15, 2016 at 2:51 pm
Joe, allowed is an interesting word. As has already been noted, technically the IRS & administrative code forbids me from saying “vote for candidate Veeblefester.” In my housing/homelessness work, it’s a long-standing debate as to whether or not a non-profit like us can lobby and advocate for specific laws to be passed (my reading is that we are, some say we cannot or should not for fear of looking too biased), but we clearly also cannot put in our newsletter or on our sign-boards “vote for candidate Veeblefester” or even an issue on the ballot (school or children services levies, etc.).
Now, as a pastor, I know that I might say “Veeblefester is my choice” from the pulpit or in a church publication, and either through inattention or the personalish tone of the statement not get myself or more likely the church sanctioned. If I said “Newark Central believes our members should vote for Veeblefester as a necessary expression of their faith” then there is precedent that, while rare, the IRS can come in and simply strip us as an organization of our tax-exempt status. That’s “all” (not small, but it’s not jail time or the like).
But I feel that I have a pastoral ethics question in hand here. For me to use my role in people’s lives to press for some limited, contingent political matter, like a candidate getting a term in office, is to me presumptuous, and inappropriate. I like to think I do not endorse candidates *as* a pastor because it’s the right thing to do; in the same token, I could see an occasion where I might decide it is my pastoral duty to say something even if there’s a fiscal consequence — although even there, the problem is that I don’t bear the brunt of the implication, except to the extent that losing tax-exempt status might lead to a future day of not making payroll, and no check for the parson.
Folks here know that I have personally worked for a few local issues on which there was not unanimity in the membership over, and likewise for candidates. I have yet to hear anyone, especially someone on the opposite side from my own commitments, say to me “hey, you’ve been pushing people your way, and I feel that’s unfair.” Maybe they wouldn’t, and a few grumble in private, but I doubt it. I do know that everyone has come to expect me to alert the folks in newsletter, bulletin, and my time doing announcements to when deadlines for registration are, to have forms on the welcome center, and to remind everyone when election day (including primaries) are coming, because as they now chime in with one voice as I conclude, “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain later!”
And I don’t think Colin Powell was weasely with or about what Hillary should do; he was (if you read all of what he recommended) also helping a fairly non-technical person understand how between their terms the technology was changing rapidly. That’s the dilemma Sec’y. Clinton hooked herself on the horns of, even as she just wanted to use the tools she was familiar with. I got to work with Powell’s staff as the America’s Promise program was ramping up (the little red wagon pins, etc.), and it’s still working if you care to know more about it — http://www.americaspromise.org/ — and I think he has and is doing good work in an area he and Alma care deeply about.
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Peter said on September 15, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Alex and Julie: thanks for the links. Of course Orange Julius was going to spin the fiasco in his favor.
I had to read the comment boards when the first stories came out. One person’s opinion of the minister was “that bitch needs to know her place”, and I thought there’s your Trump 2016 recap in 25 words or less! Stay classy America!
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 15, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Re: my third para above — this is where some of my more conservative and harder-line pro-life colleagues reason themselves into a corner from which an IRS sanction becomes the only exit. If you are convinced that a pro-choice candidate is really bringing about the worship of Moloch and ushering in the condemnation of the nation through a renunciation of all that’s good and holy, then you can rationalize that you simply must tell your members they cannot vote for Veeblefester, and the question arises “if there’s more than two on the ballot, and you tell your flock God’s command is to not vote for one, is that itself a violation?” I don’t tend to see things both politically and spiritually in that sort of absolutist and irrevocable light, so I’d have to be convinced that a potential candidate is worse, even, than Donald J. Trump to go there. But on abortion to my right, and now with Trump for some on my left, I know a fair number of clergyfolk who are stepping over that line of “you must not vote for…” and thus far the IRS has ducked those cases when raised. Not sure where it might go if pressed.
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susan said on September 15, 2016 at 3:07 pm
Some may be attracted to Colin Powell’s shiny shoes and demeanor, but he’s a polished turd. Do none remember his association with My Lai and other Vietnam brutalities? Screw him. He’s another con artist.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 3:36 pm
Powell was also very clearly nontechnical (he didn’t see any difference between bring a TV remote vs a cellphone into a SCIF, and he had been an army officer presumably used to dealing with classified docs for far longer). What he was weaselly about were his statements about what he told Clinton about using email when; he tried to make it seem like she had already set everything up before she asked his opinion, and that she was just trying to blame him for her problems. The actual email paints a different picture.
I’m sure his foundation does great work. That foundation, incidentally, was active while he was SoS and was run by his wife.
As far as resisting the Iraq war, he was famous for resisting any intervention the Clinton administration wanted to do when he was Chairman JCS, fighting with Madeleine Albright over Bosnia.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 3:50 pm
Compensating corporate executives with stock is even worse than you think: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/executives-making-way-more-than-reported/499850/
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Suzanne said on September 15, 2016 at 3:51 pm
Man, I wish Veeblefester was on the ballot! I’d know how to cast my vote!
The pro-life thing is huge and it is preached from many a pulpit. If you aren’t pro-life or aren’t surrounded by pro-lifers, you really have no idea. That truly is the only thing that matters to a great many voters. As we see with the evangelical support of Trump, they don’t much care if a two headed devil with 5 giant male appendages and a record of group rape & pillage is on the ballot as long he says he’ll do his level best to ban abortion. And it’s mostly just abortion. Say you’ll bomb the bejeesus out of cities in Syria, knowing scores of innocent children will die and you will generally don’t get a “let’s stand for life” reaction from these same people.
But I digress. A pastor does not necessarily have to specify which candidate to vote for but can preach that support of certain positions that certain candidates put forward might just be your ticket to a pleasant eternity or an eternal burn. I have been told by church people, and yes, a few pastors, that it is impossible to vote Democratic and still be a Christian. So, how much a pastor can push a political agenda is a fluid thing.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 4:22 pm
Suzanne, one of the reasons I stopped indulging my parents and going with them to church when I visited was the overt political pro-life stuff in their Sunday School class. There was a woman in the class who subscribed to some sort of newsletter and was given time at the beginning to update everybody on the topic. Couldn’t take it any longer, especially in conjunction with a discussion about God sending a hurricane to wake us up and tell us that we needed to repent (of course, the hurricane was conveniently in Florida, not Tennessee; how kind of God to kill a,few Floridians to warn people in Tennessee!) I was done. I couldn’t even keep my mouth shut then, I had to point out that people died. There was a phone call later that afternoon and my mom told me that the class had decided to send some money for hurricane relief, so there was that.
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alex said on September 15, 2016 at 6:43 pm
Off topic, for those who’ve been following the saga of the nut job who’s been fighting City Hall to remove the historic designation of the only Frank Lloyd Wright House in Fort Wayne:
http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/longform/frank-lloyd-wright/?utm_content=buffer08b9f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
A good read.
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David C. said on September 15, 2016 at 6:50 pm
A truly honorable man would have resigned and made no bones about why he did. The news orgs still would have beaten the war drums, because war is fun, has neat pictures of things blowing up, and is good for ratings. We Dirty Fucking Hippies, would have been right, again, and still would have been vilified for our trouble. Probably, nothing much would have changed, but the good general would have a genuine claim as a truth teller. We’ll likely be paying for that failure for decades and for that he doesn’t get a pass.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 7:18 pm
My final thought on Powell. He was not some naïf new to working with intelligence agencies. He had served as National Security Advisor under Reagan and Chairman JCS under Bush and Clinton. If any SoS should have been well-suited to recognize and push back against cherry-picked intelligence and unnecessary war, it should have been Powell.
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Deggjr said on September 15, 2016 at 8:01 pm
One negative vote for Colin Powell: when you make the decision to go to war and start killing people, you have to get that decision right.
The Bush administration made the wrong decision and Powell was a key member of the Bush administration. Powell was the one who gave case for war to the UN. I’ve never seen his UN speech fact checked. Was there a word of truth in the speech?
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Deborah said on September 15, 2016 at 8:21 pm
Alex, thank you so much for the wonderful link about the FLW house in Fort Wayne, I truly loved reading every word of that. A few months ago when we were visiting my husband’s uncle in Rockford we toured the Laurent house, designed by FLW for a paraplegic guy who had a wife and two kids. It was kind of a modified Usonian house. Modified a bit to make it more accessible of course. It was amazing to see how a simple smallish house could be so beautiful. http://www.laurenthouse.com. I’ve been to Wright’s house in Oak Park where he lived with his family, been to Falling Water in PA, the Holly Hock house in LA and the Robie house in Chicago, Taliesin in WI, maybe a few others. But the Usonian type house in Rockford is so far my favorite, I think because it was made for a middle class family, with no pretensions.
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 9:06 pm
It’s economic anxiety, right? http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/opinion/campaign-stops/god-loves-donald-trump-right.html
In my experience, there’s always been a big overlap between evangelicals and authoritarians. There are a bunch of Dobson books in my parents’ house.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 15, 2016 at 9:17 pm
My wife is of the opinion that, in light of the “positive” developments that Trump has made in his persona and public presentations, he is in fact a Ferengi. As a Ferengi, that identity would explain everything from his hair (hiding the giant ears) to his evolving positions on various issues.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition
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Deborah said on September 15, 2016 at 9:29 pm
If the religious right detests weakness as Sherri’s link says they do, then they should be for Hillary. What she has had to put up with for decades and still comes out strong and on top of things, makes her the biggest bad ass around.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 15, 2016 at 9:59 pm
For those not up on their latter-day Trek trivia, a quote about the Ferengi:
“They’re greedy, misogynistic, untrustworthy little trolls, and I wouldn’t turn my back on one of them for a second.”
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Ferengi
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 10:28 pm
Deborah, they think women are inherently weak.
Jeff(tmmo), I’m glad you posted the link to the Rules of Acquisition. I’ve been tempted to, but was trying to keep my geekiness in check.
This is unquestionably grandstanding by Elizabeth Warren, but it is some high quality grandstanding: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/09/15/elizabeth-warren-turns-tables-fbi-over-investigation-notes/gX9Q95gLAGJ4hErSXb4LtK/story.html
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Sherri said on September 15, 2016 at 10:30 pm
BTW, Deep Space Nine is the best Trek show.
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